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Brazil has won the Copa America Femenina and in the process has qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France in 2019 (for the 8th consecutive time) and the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament in Tokyo in 2020. Brazil played seven games in the Copa America , won seven, scoring 31 goals and conceding just two.

Chile has taken the second spot for the World Cup, but will have a play off with an African nation for a spot at the Tokyo Olympics.

This new extension to the Rio Metro opened on 1 August. 16km long it serves five new stations: Nossa Senhora da Paz, Jardim de Alah, Antero de Quental, São Conrado / Rocinha and Jardim Oceânico. The last being the nearest to the Olympic Village and Olympic activites in Barra da Tijuca.

The journey between stations Nossa Senhora da Paz in Ipanema, and Jardim Oceânico takes 13 minutes. Between Carioca station, in the centre of the city, and Barra da Tijuca, the journey is just 34 minutes. From Uruguai, in the city’s north zone, it will take 50 minutes. It’s estimated that once the Olympics is over more than 300,000 people will use the line every day resulting in 4,000 fewer cars on the road during rush hour.

During the Games, between 5 and 21 August, the five stations will be open from 6am to 1am, Saturday to Sunday and from 7am until 1am on Sundays and holidays. Between 5 August and 18 September, only people travelling with RioCards or tickets for events will be allowed entry to this part of the metro.

If you can’t get to Rio for the Olympics and are stuck back in London, you can still soak up the atmosphere of the games and Brazil at the Rio Olympic Lounge that is located in the Brazilian Embassy, just off Trafalgar Square (14-16 Cockspur Street. SW1Y 5BL).

Entry is free and the lounge is open Monday to Saturday from 10.00 and 19.00 from 6 to 21 August.

The Lounge showcases what lies beyond the city of Rio, and shows the state of Rio’s many other attractions. Basically where the residents of Rio – the Cariocas – head out to to have even more fun (if that is possible) at the weekends. Some even live there and go to Rio for the weekends!

If you are in Rio for the Olympics, you can get more information of what the city and state of Rio has to offer from the Visit Rio and TurisRio stands in Espaço Rio de Janeiro located at the Olympic Boulevard, at Orla Mayor Luiz Paulo Conde in the port area.

On Sunday, 30 August 12 teams paraded along the River Thames in London and then set sail on the start of their round the world voyage in the Clipper Round the World race.

The first leg of the race takes the yachts from London to Rio de Janeiro. The race covers 16 cities across six continents, and the twelve crews will race into some of the most iconic ports around the globe, including Rio.

In Rio the yachts will berth at the Marina da Gloria that will host the Olympic and Paralympic yachting activities in 2016.

The owner of Rio’s international airport – Galeão / Tom Jobim – has released a number of images showing what the airport should start to look like prior to the opening of the Olympic Games in August 2016.

Movement, innovation and Brazilian flavour is the inspiration behind the design of the Rio 2016 Olympic torch, which was unveiled on 3 July 2015. Its design aims to reflect the meeting of the Olympic flame with the human warmth of the Brazilian people.

The torch relay convoy is expected to visit 500 Brazilian cities and towns – about 300 of which will host the relay itself while a further 200 will cheer the convoy as it passes by with the flame on display. They include the capitals of all 26 Brazilian states and Brasília. The route has been designed to reach the highest number of people as possible, and Rio 2016 estimates that the torch relay will reach 90 per cent of the Brazilian population.

The journey will begin in May 2016 and will last between 90 and 100 days. There will be about 12,000 torchbearers, each one carrying their torch about 200 meters, then passing the flame – which will have been lit in Greece – on to the next. The torch will travel 20,000 km by road and another 10,000 miles by air over the North and Midwest parts of the country, between the cities of Teresina and Campo Grande, without the flame ever going out.

The torch’s texture has triangles running the length of its body, alluding to the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect, and the floating effect of its different segments refers to the efforts of the athletes. One of its main innovations is the movement of these segments, which open up and expand vertically when the Olympic flame is passed from one torchbearer to another. This is known as “the kiss of the torches”.
Upon expanding, the segments reveal the elements that add the Brazilian flavour – diversity, energy and nature – represented by the sea, mountains, sky and sun, and the colours of the Brazilian flag.

Crafted from recycled aluminium and resin with a satin finish, the torch weighs between 1kg and 1.5kg and stands 63.5cm high when closed and 69cm when opened.

The torch relay will start in Brasília and has a definite finish date: 5 August 2016, the day of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games opening ceremony at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio.

The 83 cities that will be the final destination of the Olympic flame at the end of each day are:

Brazilians and foreigners residents in Brazil who applied for tickets for Rio 2016 learnt on 9 June the result of the first ticket ballot. Results of the draw are available online at TICKETS

Organisers say 65% of those who applied will be getting something, but only 14.2% will get all the tickets they asked for. All seats at 121 of the 694 sessions available are now sold-out, including all tickets for the triathlon, the marathon swimming and synchronized swimming events. The average value of each ticket request was R$1,341 or about US$430 (£283 / €385).

In terms of demand the order of preference was football, athletics, volleyball, basketball, handball, beach volley, tennis, gymnastics, judo and swimming.

1.6 million of the 4.5 million tickets available were allocated on 9 June and as of 1 July fans who applied in the first draw can try again for tickets in the second draw, the results of which will be announced in August. Those who were not successful in the first phase will have priority in the second.

Following the second draw in August, direct online sales will open in October 2015 and box office sales will open in May 2016. Sold-out sessions may become available again in the event of withdrawal, non-payment, contingency release and return of international tickets.